Fellow Citizens:
If this so called British charity is intended to somehow hoodwink citizens of
Uganda to forgive British sins (in collaboration with Museveni) against the
people of Uganda, take it from me, fellow citizen, it is a fatal useless
attempt which will not change the Psychic or rather attitudes of Ugandans
against the Brits...in any case what is 3B shillings going to do?
Matek
Matek
UK Gives Northern Uganda sh3b
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New Vision (Kampala)
December 21, 2002
Posted to the web December 23, 2002
John Eremu and Anne Mugisa
Kampala
The British government has given an additional sh3.1b in aid of the
internally-displaced people in northern Uganda, as the World Food Programme
(WFP) expressed great concern about the deteriorating security situation
there.
The aid is meant to support the work of the World Food Programme, the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Uganda Red Cross Society, the
British High Commission said in a statement yesterday.
Some 800,000 people are displaced in the area and are in need of food
assistance.
LRA chief Joseph Kony has fought the Government for about 16 years. Kony has
bases in southern Sudan where the UPDF has been pursuing him.
This is an increase from 520,000 people identified last month in need of food
relief, a statement from the WFP said.
It said the displaced people in the camps in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader,
continued to be terrorised by rebels.
"The money will be used to supply relief items to the displaced people, to
support social services and to purchase food within Uganda for distribution
to those in need," the statement said.
The new commitment is in addition to sh1.27b already spent by the British
government this financial year to support provision of non-food items and
child welfare services to internally displaced people. The money was
channelled through UNICEF and Save the Children, Denmark.
The WFP said the insecurity had prevented people from accessing their fields
and that there had been abductions in and around the camps as the people went
out to look for food and firewood.
The WFP said a random check on 10 households revealed that there were no food
reserves except for the WFP aid they had just received.
The organisation said insecurity was also hampering efforts by humanitarian
bodies to access the people. Only WFP reaches them under heavy military
escort.
WFP also said it was facing a shortfall of 44,064 tonnes of food commodities
valued at US$24m, from December to June 2003.
Britain, through its Department for International Development (DfID), is one
of Uganda's biggest donors and has since 2000 committed sh5.6b for conflict
resolution programmes including support to the Amnesty Commission.
DfID promotes poverty reduction in developing countries and will this
financial year spend up to £75m (sh222b) towards such programmes in Uganda.
Its contribution to Uganda's development comes through direct budget support
and technical assistance towards the government Poverty Eradication Action
Plan (PEAP).
